# Adobe Acrobat Reader

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-reader/99089>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 19, 2002, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-reader/99089 "2002-03-19T19:44:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MagicalSilverKey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@MagicalSilverKey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicalSilverKey)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2002, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-reader/99089/1 "2002-03-19T19:44:59Z")

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Why is AAR so damn slow?

I was trying to view a .pdf document and it takes eternity to go from one page to the next, or scroll. I doubt it’s a problem with my pc.

Is AAR _supposed_ to act this way?

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**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2002, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-reader/99089/2 "2002-03-19T20:11:00Z")

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Depends on the document - some things don’t render very well and take up an enormous amount of memory. Does it exhibit this behavior with all files, or just a couple in particular? Also, note that AAR 5.0 is a bit slower than 4.0, if you’ve just started using it.

And if you have the full version, which allows you to create and write (like I do), then it’s like molasses.

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**Author:** ![abel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@abel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abel)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2002, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-reader/99089/3 "2002-03-19T20:13:12Z")

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AAR doesn’t normally act that way for me. Are there a lot of big images on the pages? Or does the document have a lot of pages/MB? The only thing that’s slowed my computer down with PDF files is when there are lots of high resolution images on the page.

I’ll assume you’re running at least an average speed computer, not a 486 or a typewriter attached to a T.V. 🙂

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**Author:** ![MagicalSilverKey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@MagicalSilverKey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicalSilverKey)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2002, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-reader/99089/4 "2002-03-20T07:41:51Z")

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Well, I’m running Win98se on a Dell Dimension with Pentium III at 550 mHZ and 382 MB of RAM. That’s a pretty admirable amount of power.

Obviously, AAR 5 is a tortoise program, as you folks have indicated. I don’t have need to use AAR very often, so I guess it’s no huge deal. I was just curious. Thanks.